Gurka to Serve on NIH Study Section

photo of Matthew Gurka, Ph.D.Matthew Gurka, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics (HOBI) at UF and associate director of UF’s Institute for Child Health Policy (ICHP), was selected to serve as a member of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes (KNOD) Study Section, part of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review.

As a member of the KNOD Study Section, Gurka will review grant applications, make recommendations to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board, and keep abreast of research in applicants’ fields of science.

Members are selected by the NIH for “demonstrating competence and achievement in their scientific discipline based on the quality of their research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors,” according to a letter written by Richard Nakamura, Ph.D., director of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review.

“Service on a study section also requires mature judgment and objectivity as well as the ability to work effectively in a group, qualities Dr. Gurka will bring to this important task,” Nakamura wrote.

Gurka’s current research, funded by a 5-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, focuses on the development, validation and use of a metabolic syndrome severity calculator to predict which patients with the syndrome face a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease or Type 2 diabetes later in life.

Betsy Shenkman, Ph.D., chair of HOBI and director of ICHP said, “Dr. Gurka’s selection to the KNOD Study Section reaffirms his status as a national leader in his field, and his service in this group will only strengthen the preeminence standings of the College of Medicine and the University of Florida.”

Gurka, who is also a member of the Society for Pediatric Research and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Pediatrics, said, “I am honored to serve with this group of accomplished researchers and to have an influence on what research the NIH funds in the areas of kidney disease, obesity and diabetes.”

Gurka’s four-year term begins on July 1 and runs through June 30, 2022.